Ah, Mr. Skelos?

Published 12:00 am, Sunday, December 26, 2010

Already? The Senate Republicans are sending uneasy messages about the extent of their commitment to reforming state government already?

The Democrats -- now formally, officially and unequivocally on their way out as the majority party -- think so, anyway. And they may have good reason to do so.

The latest clash between the rival parties is about drawing new boundaries for the Legislature in time for the 2012 elections. It was just a month ago that legions of Republicans and Democrats were elected or re-elected in large part on their promise to turn that process over to an independent, nonpartisan commission. They signed the so-called Koch pledge, after all, which left them no wiggle room at all.

More Information

The issue:

State Senate Democrats are questioning the Republicans' commitment to reform.

The Stakes:

Independent redistricting has to mean just that.

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That's why hearing what Sen. Dean Skelos, the incoming majority leader, had to say about the politics of redistricting can be alarming.

"If there is a way that we can fashion a nonpartisan thing and I'm going to discuss that with the speaker and the governor, I wouldn't mind doing that," he told Newsday last week.

OK, so far.

But then Mr. Skelos added:

"Can you take politics out of it a hundred percent? I don't think that will occur. But I think there's a way you can do it better and that's what we'll look at."

Of course there's a way to do it better. The ideal solution, which legislative leaders from both parties are so loath to embrace, would be to amend the state constitution to get politics -- or at least politics as the Legislature plays it -- out of redistricting entirely. That requires the approval of two successive legislatures and a public vote, so it would not affect required redistricting based on the 2010 census.

Mr. Skelos is being quite candid, certainly, that any solution creating an independent commission that ultimately answers to the Legislature can't escape politics entirely.

Still, the point of the Koch pledge was to minimize the politics of a process that the politicians have too long manipulated for their own survival. Mr. Skelos ought to embrace what an independent commission could do to make redistricting notably less political.

A party that suddenly became so interested in reform during its brief time in the minority shouldn't be ceding ground. This is no time to get cute, or parse words.

Mr. Skelos' remarks add to the scrutiny that comes already to the insistence of his spokesman, Mark Hansen, that the Republicans' commitment to redistricting reform is as strong as ever.

"Much ado about nothing," Mr. Hansen?

Campaign pledges should be worth something -- for both parties.

As for the suggestion from GOP quarters that balancing the budget, cutting taxes and creating jobs logically take priority over legislative redistricting, pardon the New Yorkers who want it all.